There is a lot of talk in the Indian media about which of the current US Presidential candidates will be the best for India.
"The world's oldest democracy (US) and the world's largest democracy (India) are natural partners, sharing important interests and fundamental democratic values," -Obama
"As president, I'll work to restore America's leadership in the world. And one of my goals will be to usher in a new era of partnership between the United States and India. We share so many of the same challenges and have so many of the same goals. Together, we can strengthen our economic partnership, combat terrorism, foster a stable and democratic Pakistan, advance democratic values, promote human rights, tackle global warming and address a host of other problems." - Hillary
Senator McCain has been a consistent advocate of free trade. If he merely persists with the Bush administration's stance towards India, arguably the most pro-Indian of any administration since 1947, he would be improving his relations with India
- Post 911 people are questioning America's involvement with Pakistan and have realized that Pakistan is the epicenter of terror thanks to the media coverage around the "War on Terror". They also realize the strategic importance of allying with India to combat this threat.
- A large number of Indians have immigrated to the USA in the last couple of decades which has resulted in people to people interaction and blending of cultures. Americans better understand India today than even a decade earlier.
- A large portion of their outsourced work goes to India which forces another level of interaction between people. The India Growth Story is no longer a secret and almost every edition of Business Week or Forbes carries stories about Indian Businesses or Entrepreneurship which was not a case even five years earlier.
- With a hefty trade deficit , the US sees the Indian middle class as big customers for its products.
- The US government sees rising India as a balance to China's growing dominance on the World Stage.
These presidential candidates are running to be the US President and will be focused on looking after the strategic interest of the USA.Hence it would be irresponsible for any American president ; Democrat or Republican to not ally with India. Hence in my opinion it really does not matter who wins the Presidential race as whoever does is definitely going to take steps to further improve relations with India
